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Will the silent impatience hold?
Mark Wignall
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I was on the first floor of a small uptown plaza in conversation with someone when he spotted me. One could tell that the fury of the midday sun had done another day's job on him. His black face was sweating but he didn't appear tired as he climbed upwards, two steps at a time. As he approached, he said, "So wha happen boss, yu govament nah gwaan wid nutten."
He was a 36-year-old street-side vendor and a part-time carpenter. Like a lot of street-side vendors, he also hustled little sachets of ganja. Months ago, he told me that cigarettes and ganja were his biggest profit earners. I turned away from the first person and asked, "What do you want from this government?" I asked not in defence of the new JLP administration, but out of a deep desire to determine if there were one or two main items he needed to see the authorities address.
"Whe di job dem dey? Wha bout di crime? Wha bout di school fee ting and Audley Shaw an di nurse dem?" Quite a package. I pointed out to him that the government had not been in office for six weeks yet. I explained that the Ministry of Education was in the process of sorting out the problems with tuition fees. As we spoke further, by which time I thought I had convinced him that much more time was needed, he said as he walked away, "Mr Wignall, dem nah gwaan wid nutten."
If this administration fails in its first year, it will be because of the impatience of at least half of the voting population, the high expectations of the other half and, among those who did not bother to vote, a mix of a need to see something positive happening along with a wish that the government will falter.
Since the elections I have been travelling around this country trying to listen to the concerns at street level. The prime minister is still an unknown entity as 'Prime Minister', but where persons have given him fair ratings on his posture as 'Prime Minister', the impatience on crime reduction will be his most crucial battle in the first year of his mandate. Where persons speak of his leadership, it is done in contrast to Portia Simpson Miller, although there is still a lot of love left for her.
Every country has its apolitical and non-political mood swings of the moment. At this time the current mood is, 'Expect little because little is all we have ever had.' While every country will have these swings along with the politics attached to them, the political leadership cannot direct the affairs of a country by responding to every mood swing.
There must be constancy in bringing about sound, workable policies and managing them, and there must be space to allow for subtle shifts in an effort to refine the policy goals. This I believe is what we mean when we speak of strong leadership. We need to take that one step further and enter the realm of bold leadership.
The plan for the prime minister to have regular addresses to the nation must be taken one step further by bringing the government to the rural areas, which is really where the 'country' is. Golding needs to launch himself into the heart of rural Jamaica even as his minister with responsibility for local government reform, Bobby Montague, brings about a shaping of a new, workable system of 'bottom up' local government.
At this time, the typical Jamaican does not give two hoots about local government reform, and if this remains so, the political culture will ensure that in any change to institute the most efficient form of service delivery to the small man and woman at street level, the political machinery will retain much of the power it had before. Power to deliver service. Power to determine who gets the service.
With a local government election in the making, very few are interested in that contest and even fewer are involved in thinking about local government reform. It's all about crime reduction and job creation.
Every person who approaches me about a job is highly undereducated, and their only skill lies in hauling and pulling whatever is given to them. The nightmare facing most administrations is that group which is the easiest to hoodwink and 'fool up' in election campaigns, but the worst to deal with once the cake is taken home.
Most of the uneducated, untrained, unskilled who make it to the city's ghettoes and who 'hustle' in between accepting odd jobs are unprepared to accept work on farms, and even those labourers still living in the rural areas are leaving farming. The life of the cellphone and the 'bling' as portrayed by the present vogue seems to be incongruent with a pair of water boots and a machete.
The Golding administration needs to level with the uneducated and unskilled and let them know that the world has changed and left them behind. But does Golding have the strength to tell them that political failure of the past is a key element in bringing them to their present state? And how can a political party accept the votes of a particular grouping when in its plans for building a better Jamaica there is little room for economic manoeuvre for this poor and powerless cohort?
As the impatience grows with a government which seems to be moving in the right direction in most matters, Golding needs to do some tough talking. He needs to address the breeders who go around referring to themselves as fathers. He needs to chide the mothers who are stealing from the 'education fund' money to finance bling.
We may not all be convinced that the new JLP administration has yet found its footing, but Prime Minister Golding must never allow time to pass before he reconnects, that is, on top of efforts at 'connecting'.
If we have to live with Security Minister Derrick Smith, then so be it, but he and the prime minister need to know that the impatience is growing. We do not expect that Minister Smith and the prime minister will take to the streets with guns to fight the murdering gunmen. What we expect from them is the maintenance of that contact, implied from Bruce Golding's speech on the night of the election.
- observemark@gmail.com
Mark Wignall
Thursday, October 25, 2007
I was on the first floor of a small uptown plaza in conversation with someone when he spotted me. One could tell that the fury of the midday sun had done another day's job on him. His black face was sweating but he didn't appear tired as he climbed upwards, two steps at a time. As he approached, he said, "So wha happen boss, yu govament nah gwaan wid nutten."
He was a 36-year-old street-side vendor and a part-time carpenter. Like a lot of street-side vendors, he also hustled little sachets of ganja. Months ago, he told me that cigarettes and ganja were his biggest profit earners. I turned away from the first person and asked, "What do you want from this government?" I asked not in defence of the new JLP administration, but out of a deep desire to determine if there were one or two main items he needed to see the authorities address.
"Whe di job dem dey? Wha bout di crime? Wha bout di school fee ting and Audley Shaw an di nurse dem?" Quite a package. I pointed out to him that the government had not been in office for six weeks yet. I explained that the Ministry of Education was in the process of sorting out the problems with tuition fees. As we spoke further, by which time I thought I had convinced him that much more time was needed, he said as he walked away, "Mr Wignall, dem nah gwaan wid nutten."
If this administration fails in its first year, it will be because of the impatience of at least half of the voting population, the high expectations of the other half and, among those who did not bother to vote, a mix of a need to see something positive happening along with a wish that the government will falter.
Since the elections I have been travelling around this country trying to listen to the concerns at street level. The prime minister is still an unknown entity as 'Prime Minister', but where persons have given him fair ratings on his posture as 'Prime Minister', the impatience on crime reduction will be his most crucial battle in the first year of his mandate. Where persons speak of his leadership, it is done in contrast to Portia Simpson Miller, although there is still a lot of love left for her.
Every country has its apolitical and non-political mood swings of the moment. At this time the current mood is, 'Expect little because little is all we have ever had.' While every country will have these swings along with the politics attached to them, the political leadership cannot direct the affairs of a country by responding to every mood swing.
There must be constancy in bringing about sound, workable policies and managing them, and there must be space to allow for subtle shifts in an effort to refine the policy goals. This I believe is what we mean when we speak of strong leadership. We need to take that one step further and enter the realm of bold leadership.
The plan for the prime minister to have regular addresses to the nation must be taken one step further by bringing the government to the rural areas, which is really where the 'country' is. Golding needs to launch himself into the heart of rural Jamaica even as his minister with responsibility for local government reform, Bobby Montague, brings about a shaping of a new, workable system of 'bottom up' local government.
At this time, the typical Jamaican does not give two hoots about local government reform, and if this remains so, the political culture will ensure that in any change to institute the most efficient form of service delivery to the small man and woman at street level, the political machinery will retain much of the power it had before. Power to deliver service. Power to determine who gets the service.
With a local government election in the making, very few are interested in that contest and even fewer are involved in thinking about local government reform. It's all about crime reduction and job creation.
Every person who approaches me about a job is highly undereducated, and their only skill lies in hauling and pulling whatever is given to them. The nightmare facing most administrations is that group which is the easiest to hoodwink and 'fool up' in election campaigns, but the worst to deal with once the cake is taken home.
Most of the uneducated, untrained, unskilled who make it to the city's ghettoes and who 'hustle' in between accepting odd jobs are unprepared to accept work on farms, and even those labourers still living in the rural areas are leaving farming. The life of the cellphone and the 'bling' as portrayed by the present vogue seems to be incongruent with a pair of water boots and a machete.
The Golding administration needs to level with the uneducated and unskilled and let them know that the world has changed and left them behind. But does Golding have the strength to tell them that political failure of the past is a key element in bringing them to their present state? And how can a political party accept the votes of a particular grouping when in its plans for building a better Jamaica there is little room for economic manoeuvre for this poor and powerless cohort?
As the impatience grows with a government which seems to be moving in the right direction in most matters, Golding needs to do some tough talking. He needs to address the breeders who go around referring to themselves as fathers. He needs to chide the mothers who are stealing from the 'education fund' money to finance bling.
We may not all be convinced that the new JLP administration has yet found its footing, but Prime Minister Golding must never allow time to pass before he reconnects, that is, on top of efforts at 'connecting'.
If we have to live with Security Minister Derrick Smith, then so be it, but he and the prime minister need to know that the impatience is growing. We do not expect that Minister Smith and the prime minister will take to the streets with guns to fight the murdering gunmen. What we expect from them is the maintenance of that contact, implied from Bruce Golding's speech on the night of the election.
- observemark@gmail.com
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